Matt Kroschel is a CBS-TV multimedia journalist originally from Colorado now reporting in Huntsville, Alabama for WHNT News 19. We are Taking Action and Getting Results! Send news tips on Twitter @ Matt_Kroschel.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Its all hands on deck to keep a non native species of weed from taking over the Western Slope. For scientist in Palisade a very small fly they are raising may hold the answer to eradicating the toxic Russian Knap weed on the Western Slope.

Thousands of the little bugs are being breed right now at the US department of Agriculture facility. Experts I spoke with say they might hold the key to stopping this plant from doing even more damage here. Since entomologist Dan Bean was 6-years-old he wanted to work with bugs.

Now he is on the front lines in the battle against the Russian Knapweed. It's biological warfare. The bugs are brought in because they will only feed on the knapweed. Like laser guided missiles, they seek out the weed and move on into the plant, literaly.

This is not the first time the Palisde operation has raised bugs to attack non native plants. I am told the beetles released to tackle the tammarask problem is doing great.SO knapweeds listen up! The flys are coming you have been warned!

I am told the first stop for the bugs will be some Buearu of Land Managment property out near Loma.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

In part two of our special report, we travel to capital hill to pin down where the money is going and see what can be done to get rid of the fees all together.

With accusations of 'cost shifting' flying from the Western Slope, Bureau of Land Management officials go on the defense.

Last year $57,200 were collected at the Gunnison George Conservation site near Montrose. Nationwide, the BLM alone took in 18 million dollars in user fees.

The deputy director at the BLM Anthony Bobo, Jr., told NewsChannel Five 100 percent of the money collected goes back to the site where it was taken.

As for alleged cost shifting, Bobo said those claims are just flat wrong. He said his job is to audit the money collected at each of the sites across the country. For the BLM all of that money is supposed to go directly back to the ground where they are taken from.

Less than 1 million dollars of the 18 million collected was used on administration costs in 2010, according to documents provided to NewsChannel Five.

That money is used to enforce the user fees, maintain the areas where the fees are being used.

It took an act of Congress to get even allowing the BLM to charge the added fees to users back in 2008. Colorado Senator Mark Udall (D) said In a perfect world the fees would be repealed today, but the reality is with massive federal budget deficits, that just is not in the cards.

"Everyone should be able to use their public lands and not be obstructed from doing that but the reality is that we have some serious budget problems and the money is just not there to maintain these areas without it," Senator Udall said. "I will work to make sure those fees are being spent at the sites and not being misused," he added.

As for Bobo, he said he will keep working to make sure our money is used wisely at the federal level.

"We have a good pulse of what is going on on the ground and we are not sitting up here at the palace making designs without knowing how they will effect the people," Bobo said.

And back on the Western Slope, activists will keep fighting, even if their efforts seem future right now.

"This is my land I have to fight for it, because they they are doing is wrong and someone has to stand up to it," Western Slope No Fee Coalition founder Kitty Benzar said.

A jury trial for Former Montrose D-A Myrl Serra won't start Monday like it was scheduled.

In a Mesa County Courtroom Thursday afternoon Serra's defense team asked the judge for a continence. They claim the prosecution did not provide them with enough time to look over hundreds of electronic files containing communications from Serra.You may remember Serra is accused of forcing a former employee to perform sexual acts. The judge has ordered a new trial date for October 31st starting at 9:00 AM.

Meanwhile another bond violation jury trial will still begin August 29th.

Suspect Claims He 'Blacked Out' During Attack

Matt Kroschel

Grand Junction- A Fourth of July mass stabbing suspect is behind bars tonight.

The Fruitvale early morning stabbing left five people in the hospital with knife and hammer wounds.
24-year-old Alejandro "Alex" Olvera faces multiple felony charges stemming from that incident. Mesa County Sheriff investigators picked Olvera up Tuesday.

In an affidavit obtained by NewsChannel Five, the suspect claims he blacked out during the attack. He says he was attempting to get the group of neighbors to stop lighting off loud fireworks, and that is when he got jumped by a group of angry people.

According to the Mesa County Sheriff's Office a fight broke out and several people were left injured in the 31-hundred block of Perkins Drive.

Five people were transported to St. Mary's Hospital, we have learned one of the victims was reportedly hit in the head with a hammer and the rest had several stab wounds. Investigators spend the last several days interviewing witness including the suspects girlfriend.

The Affidavit reports Olvera said he served in the Army and the sound of the fireworks was making him angry. Olvera is being held here at the jail and faces first and second degree assault charges for the attack.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Intense storms pack a punch across much of the state. Strong storms moved across the Western Slope Monday night and Tuesday leaving flooding in their wake. It was coming down so hard earlier this evening I was forced to pull over my news car and wait out the storm. There was lots of standing water and some small flash floods reported near the Mesa/Delta county lines.

Standing water on Hwy. 50 made travel a bit tricky!

I have heard reports from the Hotchkiss area of flooding on Mainstreet and in the downtown area.Firefighters I spoke with from the scene tell me they are clearing up right now from the storm.

Monday, July 11, 2011

I Just got back to the newsroom from Olathe where farmers are working around the clock to get ready for the harvest of the world famous Olathe Sweet Corn. This year, a late spring cold snap has forced farmers to push back their harvest date. Last year they got their first harvest July 19, this year they are shooting for the 24th.